The Green Race Experience

Photo Chris Bell www.boatingbeta.com

Matt Wallace about to Boof into the Stadium

5,4,3,2,1....Go!!! Your muscles, your gasping for breath, and then you round the bend. You seem them hundreds of people, you hear the roar of the crowd, and suddenly you are reenergized. This is a feeling most athletes experience. The energy and excitement surrounded with a big game, the way the crowd pumps you up and can enhance your performance. As a kayaker this is a feeling one typically wouldn't expect to experience, considering we spend our time in small groups descending down steep rivers and creeks in inaccessible and isolated canyons and gorges. Then there is "The Green Race"! Kayakers from around the world spend their entire year in anticipation for the first Saturday in November. On this Saturday, the Green River transforms from a lonely isolated gorge to an outdoor stadium jam packed with fans coming to see "The Greatest Show on Earth." Over a thousand people hike and paddle into the Narrows of The Green, to watch some of the best/craziest kayakers in the world race some of the steepest and most intense rapids found. Racers spend weeks training in an empty gorge only to be gifted with a crowd buzzing with energy on race day.

http://lookoutdoornews.com/content/sam-silvey-photography

Matt Wallace in Go Left

Photo Nate Rozell. Matt Wallace Going into Zwicks

Photo Nate Rozell Matt Wallace in Zwicks

As a racer your nerves are on edge for weeks before the race. Training laps whether solo or with a group are lonely. It's the constant running of race laps in one's mind. The questions, "Will I have clean lines?, "Will I crash?" , "Will I finish?". You hear the tales of carnage from some of the best paddlers, and you are scared. Then there is the Gorilla, the proverbial monkey on every racers' back. Gorilla is the largest rapid on the Green River and is the heart of the race course. This rapid conjures up fear and excitement in every racer and spectator. Half the battle or racing the green is just surviving until race day. Then the weeks of training, all come down to one shot. You get one lap, to post the fastest time you can.

Photo Nate Rozell Matt Wallace Heading Down Stream

Photo Kat Levitt

Race day surprisingly brings a breath of relief. You know you have made it and in a couple hours you will have posted your time and this" foolhardy" speed paddling of Class V can be over for another year. There is a sense of focus and excitement in the parking lot, as all the racers collect their bibs, discover their start times, and wait for Jason Hale "to fire them up" with one of his motivational pre-race speeches. After the speech it is a lonely walk down the trail to the river. This must be the way the Gladiators felt as they slowly drudged from the bowls of the Coliseum to take center stage.

Photo Kat Levitt Matt Wallace Flying Squirel Boof

Photo Kat Levitt Matt Wallace Heading into the Notch

Photo Chris Bell www.boatingbeta.com

Matt Wallace " Spankin' the Monkey"

www.greenriverextrem.com

Matt Wallace Gorilla

5,4,3,2,1! You are off. You are all alone, it's just you and the river. You paddle as hard as you can, you focus on your lines. Then you hear them, the roar of the river is drowned out by the crowd. Then you see them, hundreds of people lining both sides of the river. You become excited and reenergized, You must re- focus and put the blinders on, it's time to "Spank the Monkey." After careening off Gorilla you put the hammer down, you paddle as hard as you can through the final section of the course. You can no longer breath, you feel like vomiting, you want to quit, but the crowd urges you on. As you slam into the rock marking the end of the course, you feel a since of pride. You finished! You have just completed the toughest extreme race on the planet. You regain your breath, then with rubbery legs you hike into the crowd to greet all your friends and cheer on the rest of the racers.

Photo by Joe Williams

Photo by Joe Williams

Nate Rozell "Spankin the Monkey" WTF??? Why didn't he race??

Photo Matt Wallace

Special thanks to everyone that makes The Green Race possible: chris bell/ www.boatingbeta.com, LVM, The Green River Community, and all the racers.

Thanks to everyone who came out to support all the racers.

Thanks to all my friends that came out to support me, all the boaters I trained with, and Mark for welding my boat last minute before the race. www.walden'sridgewhitewater.com

MW